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Italy is cracking down on piracy in a mass shutdown of websites -- in the form of blocking at the Internet service provider level -- that are related in some way to file sharing. The move will see 46 sites blocked to Internet goers in the nation, perhaps the largest move of this nature to happen in Italy.

To the consumer, having a municipal broadband network in your city probably sounds like a great thing. It could get you better speeds and lower cost. To the major ISPs, that municipal broadband is more competition that means fewer customers for them. To help stave the rollout of municipal broadband networks major ISPs have taken to lobbying.

Getting content delivered to your PC, TV or mobile device via the Internet is no simple matter, but the business ecosystem working behind that can be even more convoluted. While not exactly pointing to the fact, new data gathered about Internet performance might be pointing the finger at the almost unspoken but widely practiced business of peering.

Google has built a fiber-optic network in Kampala, Uganda, the company announced today, and it is a huge step forward for the city's Internet infrastructure. Until recently, Kampala was mostly on pre-broadband speeds. Today, the modern city of 1.2 million residents can now access the Internet at modern speeds.

Late last month, a failure to negotiate fees between Time Warner Cable and CBS resulted in the first company dropping the latter one from its service in many markets, causing about 3 million people to lose access to the network. Although a truce was offered earlier this month, the spat continues, and in its wake leaves a long trail of spiked piracy rates.

Time Warner Cable and CBS have found themselves embroiled in a bit of a spat, with the cable service provider cutting CBS from many major markets earlier today. In response, CBS has issued a jab back, no longer allowing the provider's subscribers to have access to full streaming episodes on its website. As long as Time Warner continues to leave CBS off its maps, its customers will remain blocked.

Software engineer Moxie Marlinspike over at Thought Crime says he's no stranger to unsolicited emails from individuals seeking help with surveillance efforts, due to some of the software he has created. While the programmer says he ignores most of them, one he received earlier this month caught his eye, and a short while later he discovered that Saudi Arabia telecom Mobily is working on a project to intercept mobile traffic.

You may not be familiar with a service called Tor. Tor is a web service that allows users to surf the Internet, use IM, and other services while keeping themselves completely anonymous. Tor is a free and open-source that is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

5 internet service providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Cablevision launched their "Six Strikes" anti-piracy program this Monday. The program is the latest attempt for ISPs to stop its users from pirating software and media illegally. At the launch of the piracy program, the ISPs kept quiet about the consequences that would ensue if the users reached their 5th or 6th warning, but now they've explained their punishments.

Starting next week, many of the major Internet Service Providers will be launching their much delayed anti-piracy system. The system was supposed to launch at the end of 2011, and again at various dates in 2012, but due to unforeseen conflicts, the system launch had to be delayed. Now according to various sources, the system has been "confirmed" to launch beginning on Monday next week.

The Center for Copyright Information (CCI) will officially begin cracking down on illegal downloading and other various acts of online piracy by rolling out its Copyright Alert System (CAS) sometime in the next few weeks. The CAS will be used to deliver copyright infringement notices to internet service providers from content owners who detect users that are illegally downloading copyrighted material.